Curling, a sport where players throw heavy granite stones also known as “rocks” across sheets of ice towards a painted target, is widely recognized as being one of the world’s oldest team sports. Originating in medieval Scotland, where it was played on frozen ponds during cold winters, the sport was later brought to other parts of Europe and North America by Scottish emigrants. Curling requires a lot of strategy, skill, and teamwork to ensure that the rocks reach their optimal positions on the ice. This gives the sport its nickname, “Chess on Ice.”

When the Town of Mount Royal (TMR) Curling Club (QC, Canada) was given the honor of hosting the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship, organizers recognized that including as many spectators as possible was essential to ensure the tournament’s success. Fourteen curling teams from every Canadian province and territory would be descending upon Montreal for the week-long competition. Although early reservations showed that a large contingent of family members and friends would be at the rink to support the 56 players, there were many others who could not make the trip.

How would they follow the action? Despite the fact that this was the largest sanctioned curling event to be played in a club setting, it would not be broadcast on any television network. Instead, the competition would be streamed live over the internet to curling clubs, homes, and offices across the country.

Publishing via Livestream and Hashcaster

Michael McAteer, past president of the TMR Curling Club, was responsible for media production. He explains, “We selected Livestream, recognizing that it is the pre-eminent video streaming service and that the pricing of their service package suited our budget. Plus, it’s easy to embed their streaming video player in the event splash page hosted by Hashcaster.com.”

Hashcaster provides a unique service to event planners by posting moderated Twitter feeds on a well-designed web page. This was the first time that a live video feed would also appear on a Hashcaster page. “Although we maintained a website for the event, Hashcaster proved to be a far easier platform to update and provide timely information to spectators. In fact, it was not unusual to see spectators at the club referring to their tablets loaded with the event Hashcaster page.”

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